Malec Modern Romeo & Juliet

Chapter 17 Act 3 Scene 3

Brother Zacharia enters.

Brother Zacharia
Magnus come out. Come out, you frightened man. Trouble likes you, and you're married to disaster.

Magnus enters.

Magnus
Father, what's the news? What punishment did the Prince announce? What suffering lies in store for me that I don't know about yet?

Brother Zacharia
You know too much about suffering. I have news for you about the Prince's punishment.

Magnus
Is the Prince's punishment any less awful than doomsday?

Brother Zacharia
He made a gentler decision. You won't die, but you'll be banished from the city.

Magnus
Ha, banishment? Be merciful and say "death." Exile is much worse than death. Don't say "banishment."

Brother Zacharia
From now on, you are banished from New York. You should be able to endure this because the world is broad and wide.

Magnus
There is no world for me outside the walls of New York, except purgatory, torture, and hell itself. So, to be banished from New York is like being banished from the world, and being banished from the world is death.

Banishment is death by the wrong name. Calling death banishment is like cutting off my head with a golden axe and smiling while I'm being murdered.

Brother Zacharia
Oh, deadly sin! Oh, rude and unthankful boy! You committed a crime that is punishable by death, but our kind Prince took sympathy on you and ignored the law when he substituted banishment for death. This is kind mercy, and you don't realize it.

Magnus
It's torture, not mercy. Heaven is here because Alec lives here. Every cat and dog and little mouse, every unworthy animal that lives here can see her, but Magnus can't. Flies are healthier and more honourable and better suited for romance than Magnus. They can take hold of Alec's wonderful white hand and they can kiss his sweet lips. Even while he remains a pure virgin, he blushes when his lips touch each other because he thinks it's a sin. But Magnus can't kiss him or hold his hand because he's been banished. Flies can kiss him, but I must flee the city. Flies are like free men, but I have been banished. And yet you say that exile is not death? Did you have no poison, no sharp knife, no weapon you could use to kill me quickly, nothing so disgraceful, except banishment? Oh Friar, damned souls use the word banishment to describe hell. They howl about banishment. If you're a member of a divine spiritual order of men who forgive sins, and you say you're my friend, how do you have the heart to mangle me with the word banishment?

Brother Zacharia
You foolish madman, listen to me for a moment.

Magnus
Oh, you're just going to talk about banishment again.

Brother Zacharia
I'll give you protection from that word. I'll give you the antidote for trouble: philosophy. Philosophy will comfort you even though you've been banished.

Magnus
You're still talking about "banished?" Forget about philosophy! Unless philosophy can create a Alec, or pick up a town and put it somewhere else, or reverse a prince's punishment, it doesn't do me any good. Don't say anything else.

Brother Zacharia
Oh, so madmen like you are also deaf.

Magnus
How should madmen hear, if wise men can't even see?

Brother Zacharia
Let me talk to you about your situation.

Magnus
You can't talk about something that you don't feel. If you were as young as I am, if you were in love with Alec, if you had just married him an hour ago, if then you murdered Jace, if you were lovesick like me, and if you were banished, then you might talk about it. You might also tear your hair out of your head and collapse to the ground the way I do right now. (Magnus falls on the ground) You might kneel down and measure the grave that hasn't yet been dug.